Residents along Fairview may experience improved water pressure this spring after 650 feet of the water main is replaced.

Lake Orion Village approved one of three bids received to replace the water main via a pipe-bursting technique Monday night at the village council meeting, not to exceed $200,000. Request for bids went out October 2013.

Fairview’s water main is one of the oldest in the township—even though it is technically under village jurisdiction—and one whose history is not documented that well.

The four-inch cast iron piping will be shattered in possibly two separate segments as soon as the ground thaws early spring. Then, workers from Brigadier Contractors will feed an eight-inch pipe directly into the four-inch pipe.

“Basically they dig on either end of the water main and pull the new water main through the old one,” Jeff Sears said, Department of Public Works Director for the village.

Then each resident’s water service will be connected to the main, a new gate valve will be installed on Fairview, and then existing fire hydrants will be reconnected.

“[Residents] will see a lot more water pressure and probably a little bit cleaner water. Obviously we won’t have the issues of main breaks as much, but there’s no guarantee that will not happen,” Sears said.

The customers would be out of water for about six hours while the water main is being worked on, and it would take about ten days to reconnect all the existing services.

Sears said Fairview was one of the oldest water mains owned by the village, with another portion in Winter Subdivision off of M24 south of the village, and another along Orion Rd.

“The village put them in years and years ago whenever we first installed our community wells, and we put those in as a courtesy to the township residents. So all those residents were on their own private wells, and we’ve been on that system ever since,” Sears said. “I’m not sure how that was initiated.”

The village is in the beginning phase of a capital improvement plant which will go through and assess all of the village infrastructure.

“Once that is done we will have a better plan on what needs to be replaced and when. There are no plans right now to replace anything else. We have to have a solid plan before we move forward,” Sears said.

Fairview resident Nancy Archer began inquiring about fixing the water main last June when water began leaking into her basement from a break in the main. The Archers filed a $15,000 insurance claim August 15, 2013 for the water damages, which was denied by village insurance company, and addressed council at a meeting at the end of September.